Welcome to Gaia! ::

I suppose it's unfair. But, she could chose to try to help them fight, instead of allowing them to simply defend her. We can't put all the blame on her, though, heck, it could be the fault of her various protectors. They assume she's too weak to defend herself, almost immediatly. Or, like Kenshin, they can be possessive, that's how I choose to think of it, since he should be aware she's quite strong herself. Demonstrations being when she whacks him, about once per episode.

You're right, I can't believe I left out a few details in my own post, yours was stated better than mine. ^ ^" I'd hate to think what would've happened if she had been facing someone other than Kamatari, even then she had a hard time.

meh kaoru's strong in her own way, she is kinda put down because kenshin thinks she constantly needs protection and even sends yahiko to protect her

dont get me wrong it's for a good reason, he loves her but really

and ionno if i understand the japanese system well but females arent really looked as as being you know well i dont know how to explain it but "on top" so to speak they're always kind of the side and the spiritual morale booster of the hero

also i think besides the fact kaoru's a great fighter and can look out for herself she's portrayed kind of as kenshin's spiritual half. think about it, without her he would still be wandering japan, would have become battousai at the jinei fight, it broke his heart to leave her to go to kyoto, he would have died in the shishio fight if not for remembering her words, he would never have had a son without her.

so technically kaoru's not portayed as weak she's kenshins other half, his spirit if you will

long story short i agree and disagree

Kaoru only seems weak because she's dwarfed by moves like the Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki and the Futainokiwami (sp?). It's not that she's really weak, it's that the rest of the characters are insanely strong. Besides, Kaoru's job isn't to be strong. It's to teach Yahiko so he can be really, really strong when he finally gets the sakabato.

True, so in that case, we could say Kaoru has a more realistic amount of strength. XD

I agree, although having little boys with mad amounts of power just seems to be a Japanese thing. Like with Yahiko, or with Raijuta's apprentice (his name escapes me right now, but he's the one that moved to Germany). It's even in other anime/mangas! Fruits Basket has Hiro, and just look at the entire 12-year-old cast of Naruto!

Anyway, Kaoru's not the only weak girl in Kenshin. Megumi's pretty weak, wanting to surrender instead of facing the life she had. Or Tsubame. I mean, she's definately way weaker than Kaoru, although Misao and Kaoru seemed to be pretty evenly matched.

And besides, Kaoru got to take down the scythe-weilding transvestite Kamatari. Isn't that enough?

I'll agree with the thing about Jinei. Kaoru should've kicked him in the nads while he was holding her close to him. However, she was strong enough to break his spell.